A Synthetic Universe
GRAPA residency with Blanca Pujals
GRAPA is a programme of residencies organized by the CCCB and Hangar to launch, accompany and recount processes of artistic creation that are situated in the overlap of art, science and technology. In 2025, artist Blanca Pujals is working on the project A Synthetic Universe, which examines the complex implications of soft power in the field of fundamental science and explores the concept of neutrality.
A Synthetic Universe looks at the network of underground fundamental physics laboratories as a “sensing infrastructure”, an assembly of scientists, particles, liquids, data, political treatises and technologies. The network of laboratories not only studies the interactions between particles; it is also linked to social, political and territorial questions that Blanca Pujals’ work brings to the fore.
The project explores neutrinos, elementary particles considered “cosmic messengers”—carriers of energy and information from the most remote universe. Following the trace of neutrinos, Blanca Pujals asks whether these particles, as well as helping us detect messages from deep space-time, can also give us information to read and interpret political and social issues that also influence scientific research.
This edition of GRAPA is divided into two phases. A first phase of experimentation, in which the artist Blanca Pujals carries out her research in collaboration with the theoretical and experimental physics departments of the Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) and the Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB). And a second phase, in which young people from different fields of study work with the artist on ways of relating to other spectra or dimensions. This phase of the project also explores the concept of neutrality, reformulated by means of the neutrino.
The study group, comprising 10 young people, will function as a space for knowledge transfer and experimentation, and work in conjunction with various institutions and forms of knowledge in an interesting itinerary of artistic and scientific activities. The group will take part in the construction of a subatomic particle detection device at the IFAE (Institut de Física d’Altes Energies), visit and detect subatomic particles inside a cave in Cardona salt mine, and form part of a workshop to experiment with blue light with the artist Jou Serra at Hangar and a supernatural horror narrative writing session in the Faraday cage of the IFAE.
Grapa was born as a pilot programme of the RED-ACTS project, a network promoted by the UOC and the new Art, Science and Technology Hub of Barcelona, Hac Te, with the support of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation.
Participants: Blanca Pujals, Isaac Marrero Guillamon
This activity is part of GRAPA
